UNH (expression of pain)

[The Sultan]

When Tyler announced his transfer to Marquette, Shaka tweeted out a photo of Travis.

Let's stop this BS of "Scoop is comparing him to Travis"

FFS, Shaka is comparing him to Travis.

Unless he deleted it, there is no such tweet.

[The Sultan]

Kolek wasn't the same after banging his knee.

Listening to Butch last night describe what MU's young guys were doing wrong defensively gave me insight into Bo's, and therefore Gard's, defensive philosophy.   The talk about not reaching and the angle of the hips  defensively in relation to the driving offensive player was quite insightful.   We are always frustrated about Wiscy getting away with so much contact defensively.  But they don't reach and their chest and hips are almost always square, so they are basically playing defense with their angles and their chest.

The one thing I noticed is that they oftentimes got out of place because they over-rotated or took bad angles.  Young players tend to do this.  Sometimes moving too fast on the defensive end when they don't have to, then get out of place, leaving to open shots.  This will come with experience and confidence, but IMO it's going to take some time and be painful at times.

[tower912]

Yes.  It takes time to learn how to defend aggressively without fouling.

[Uncle Rico]

This team isn't very good at the moment.  My thought entering the season was, let's see how they are playing, maybe not winning, by the end of the season.  As is, this isn't a tournament team and the gap between them and the top of the conference is a wide gulf.  I fear they're much closer to DePaul than even Xavier.

Despite this, I understand this is a process and it'll be painful and ugly at times.  There were also enough periods within last nights game that were encouraging and leads me to believe there will also be nights when it all clicks and teams they end up beating will ask how that happened.

All in all, I think .500 would be a good season. 

[avid1010]

Hate to say it, but Kur & OMax are not BE-ready interior players. They will get eaten.

MU starts 3 interior players?

OMax needs to play better...but I don't consider him an interior player.

Kuath is situational based upon match-ups in my opinion.  While Morsell has been great (a smarter McNeal?)....Oso has saved our ass in two games given I wasn't expecting much from him.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Rebounding was attrocious...but...after giving up 8 offensive boards in the first 9 minutes. They only gave up 1 the rest of the game, including 0 in the second half. Rough start but Shaka cleaned it up.

My biggest concern is 3P shooting on both ends of the court. We held them to 10/30 on 2P shots which is excellent even factoring the lower level of competition. Giving them 27 mostly open 3P opportunities and them making 12 of them is the only thing besides fouls that kept them in the game.

Interestingly, MU's defense is 35th best at not giving up second chance conversions. And is 17th in overall opponent FG% versus average. This may be the quality of opponent, so we will find out more Monday, but that puts MU's overall at 39th best on defense using possession data.

As Shaka said on his Thursday show, they categorize shots on offense into three buckets: 1) At the rim, 2) open threes and 3) all others in terms of priority. Conversely, MU's defense is designed to stop opponents in that priority. At the rim rank is 4th, trey field goal is 44th, mid range 60th, for the 17th overall so far. On offense, MU plays fast (4th lowest time of possession) and plays slow on defense (228th).

[avid1010]

As great as Morsell was in hitting big shots, stopping runs, getting to the rim, etc...in a game that MU only won because of FT discrepancy, and after fouling out the previous game, he plays 34 min giving us excellent offense and defense with 0 personal fouls.  Damn near perfect game.

[avid1010]

And Illinois without Kofi *clobbered* an Arkansas St.team 92-53 that in theory is way better than New Hampshire.  Not to mention the 71-47 drubbing of Jackson St. who is also theoretically better than UNH.

I'm not optimistic about the IL game, but I'll be watching regardless.   Maybe the home court will be worth 30 points or so

Ken Pom:
Arkansas State - 191
New Hampshire - 214
Jackson State - 280

But I get what you are saying.  SIU-E lost to friggin Chicago State by 11 last night...that's more than concerning.

[jfp61]

Ken Pom:
Arkansas State - 191
New Hampshire - 214
Jackson State - 280

But I get what you are saying.  SIU-E lost to friggin Chicago State by 11 last night...that's more than concerning.

Change to an 8 man rotation, have a crazy crowd. IU game could be single digits. It will be hard to shoot worse than MU has, a regression game is coming.

[Dr. Blackheart]

But I get what you are saying.  SIU-E lost to friggin Chicago State by 11 last night...that's more than concerning.

Hey now. Chicago State beat future Big East member St. Thomas too.

[MU82]

When Tyler announced his transfer to Marquette, Shaka tweeted out a photo of Travis.

Let's stop this BS of "Scoop is comparing him to Travis"

FFS, Shaka is comparing him to Travis.

I never saw such a tweet and never heard him say anything like that, and Fluffy says the tweet no longer exists if it ever did, so the only folks I know of who made the comparison were Scoopers.

But if Shaka tweeted that, he was wrong based on all evidence so far. And Steve Nash? And leading the Big East in assists (not a Scooper but the worst announcer ever)? And just the general gushing after a way-too-close win over a shyte team?

Look, I do not want to be in a position of tearing down one of our guys. I am very much hoping that Tyler is a BEast PG or combo guard. He might be. All I've said is that based on what we know today ... we don't know if he is. I don't know how any objective observer can look at Tyler's body of work so far and say, "Diener!" (or anything else, good or bad). I also realize it's fan nature to always try to make comparisons to players we know. So-and-so is a poor man's Wade; so-and-so reminds me of Diener, etc.

So far, I have seen Kolek play 47 minutes over two games in his entire career. He had some very nice assists (mostly in the first half of his first game against a really bad team), he generally seemed to have good vision on offense, he shot poorly, and he was beaten regularly on D. He doesn't remind me of anybody yet. We'll see!

[The Sultan]

BTW, the only pic on Instagram that Shaka had about Kolek was this one.  Also no comparison to Travis.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsZqXHBwG4/

[Uncle Rico]

Just because Kolek is white doesn't mean he's the next Travis Diener

[panda]

Just because Kolek is white doesn't mean he's the next Travis Diener

What if you put him in a blender ?

[fjm]

I thought the team looked improved vs how they looked against SIUE.

If they could make a few buckets we'd have been in much better position.

[panda]

I do also think there's an element of playing down to the level of their opponent.

We'll find out Monday.

[fjm]

Side note. If you read brew's breakdown on UNH and the amount of experience they bring back... they may not be top tier D1 4-5* players.

But UNH played an 8 man rotation: 0 were freshmen. 2 sophomores. 1 junior and 5 seniors.

MU: 10 man rotation: 4 frosh, 4 sophomores, 2 seniors.

[geps]

Don't look at the upcoming schedule. Only see maybe 1 or 2 wins until January.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Unless he deleted it, there is no such tweet.

Yes there is: https://twitter.com/CoachShakaSmart/status/1382476355573530630

[mileskishnish72]

Just because Kolek is white doesn't mean he's the next Travis Diener

I'm not sure that such a bald reference to a player's color is PC. Certainly you meant "traditional."

[The Sultan]

Yes there is: https://twitter.com/CoachShakaSmart/status/1382476355573530630

OK I saw that but didn't think that was any sort of comparison.  But that was the date Kolek committed I guess....

[JakeBarnes]

Don't look at the upcoming schedule. Only see maybe 1 or 2 wins until January.

Good to see Scoop is back.

As many have stated, I am looking for consistent improvement as a measure of success. Friday was better than Tuesday.

Likely that Monday is a rough game. We're definitely missing Greg right now as a catalyst for shooting. But it is and will get better.

[MUfan12]

A few more threes fall in each of these first two games and I think the tone is very different here.

Thought the halfcourt defense looked better last night. Press seemed less fixated on turnovers as much as trying to get them I their offense later. Might be time for Oso to start, or play Lewis at the 5 for some stretches. Kur has been basically unplayable the first two games.

[RubyWiscy]

Remember the first games are sans GE. That s a huge amount of experience on the team.

[tower912]

I liked when the play by play guy mentioned the highlight of Justin's freshman year was his game winning tip in against Wisconsin and Butch remained silent.